Your office cup is probably covered in poo and it’s put us off the boil

We all need our kick of caffeine to survive the never ending workload and mind numbing meetings our daily grind throws up.

Those five precious minutes when we get to step away from our screens make the other eight plus hours bearable.

Plus it gives us the chance to catch up on all the office gossip. You may even have your own special cup that you race to nab before your colleagues.

But the next time you go to stick the kettle you may want to give your cup an especially good clean. That is if you can stomach a cuppa after reading this.

Pic: Shutterstock

As it turns out your work cup is covered in more than just your lipstick. According to University of Arizona professor Dr. Charles Gerba there’s a good likelihood that your cup is covered in faeces… as in other people’s faeces.

Let that sink in for a minute or maybe just try to block it out altogether. The culprit according to the microbiologist is the rarely changed communal kitchen sponges.

Gerda carried out a study and found coliform bacteria on 20 percent of the coffee cups before and 100 percent of the cups after being wiped with the sponge.

What’s more no E. Coli was present before the cups were ‘cleaned’ but 20 percent tested positive after wiping.

Pic: Shutterstock

A follow up study led by Dr. Scott Kelly which included Gerba showed that offices with mostly men tended to be ‘significantly’ more un-hygienic than those with more women. The study threw up over 500 strains of bacteria from human skin, nasal, oral and intestinal cavities.

To avoid drinking from a contaminated cup Gerba recommends taking your mug home at night and putting it through the dishwasher.